Sounds of Summer
This edition of Nearby Nature marks the one hundredth article in our nature series. It is hard to believe that when Matt Sorrick and...
Just When All Hope Was Lost…
Imagine a dried-out sponge… no moisture, no spring or flexibility, just a hole-y husk capable of little else besides absorbing something new. That was the...
Bats & The Queen
The season is on! Which season? Football, Volleyball, Cross Country, Golf, Soccer...you name it; the sticks and the balls and the nets, the helmets,...
Signs of the Zodiac…Part I
This is the last of our foray into astronomy, discussing the signs of the Zodiac. I will divide the 12 signs into two parts. ...
Apocalypse?
Latest signs of the Apocalypse : O.K., so I’m listening to the radio, some story on economics and financial trends and I hear the money...
Cat Contest
Well, I’m certainly put out... disappointed... chagrined (Not you, Falls ites). Whilst the Garrettsville SummerFest was tootling along its merry way, I was missing...
Constellations of the Summer Sky…Part II
Well, we sure have had several nights during the past couple of weeks to really get a nice look at the night sky. Hopefully,...
Hug That Tree!
Awww, g’wan...hug the tree. It deserves a little attention. After the bushwhacker weather situations we’ve had around here the last couple of weeks, maybe we’d...
News Flash!
Here’s a news flash : Tbilisi, Georgia (the former Soviet Union region, not the Peachtree State): “Sausage-wielding extremists” (There’s a phrase to ponder, right?) invade...
ZZZZzzzzzzz-zzz–zzzzz
Bob snores. I can hear him across a room or in my lap. He has a sort of combination wheeze and whistle. I’m not bringing this...
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: A multipart saga of dealing with the Medicare Part D Rx insurance industry
Previously I explained how the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) made the decision to stop offering supplemental medical insurance to us retirees and,...
Amen for Jacks!
Can I get an “AMEN!” out there? Keep your fingers crossed; Spring may actually be here this time. For the occasion, all of the Jack-in-the-Pulpits...
Meet Bob, he is a cool cat!
Bobcats, though seldom seen, are the most common wildcat in North America. The Bobcat, Lynx rufus, is named for its short, bobbed tail. They...
“You’re your own worst enemy.”
As a professor and student advisor, my father spent a lot of time listening to people’s goals and their struggles on their way to...
Parks and Trees…
Well...isn’t April –now that we’ve finally got some weather that resemble Spring—just the greenest month! We’ve got Earth Day. We’ve got Arbor Day. We’ve...
Cicadas Back by Popular Demand… Not!
As we make the transition from spring into summer, the wildflowers are fading, flowering trees and shrubs are ablaze in color, and the mosquitoes,...
Boaty McBoatface
Always be careful of what you wish for; you may get it. A warning nicely illustrated by a recent item on various news media. It...
Bean counters try to control us
This is the ongoing story of how the greedy medical prescription drug insurance companies prey on us older retired people, who they presume won’t...
Six Reasons A Real Estate Deal Can Fall Apart
You fell deeply in love with an updated Victorian, knocked a few grand off the asking price, and maybe even bought a spiffy camelback...
Bean Counters: A multipart saga of dealing with the Medicare Part D Rx insurance industry
This is the ongoing story of how the greedy medical/ prescription insurance companies prey on us older retired people, who, they presume, won’t...
Fiscal Fashions
So...I’m listening to a radio program called “Marketplace” and discovered an interesting idea from some economic guru—Michael Bloomburg or Warren Buffett or some such...
Prodigality
O.K., I can definitely understand the viewpoint of the older brother in the Prodigal Son scenario and I have to wonder if there might...
It’s All About The Home
Today I had a customer in the store looking at bar stools. Before we could get to the fun stuff like style and color,...
Return of the Prodigal Cat
I started with a dog, you know. Her name was Samantha, which rapidly became “Sammie”; her mother was a purebred apricot poodle and her...
Minks and Otters
As promised, we will continue up the family tree of the toughest family on the block, the Mustelids. This week we will be discussing...
“Respect is earned; not given.”
While Marlon Brando in The Godfather usually gets the credit for this quote, he was actually borrowing a bit of wisdom from the Pakistani...
The Name Game
Speaking of winter storms.... This whole naming thing apparently started with the Weather Channel and a Latin class somewhere. This was apparently so that...
It’s All About The Home
Welcome to “It’s all about the Home”. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jane Ulmer and I am the co-owner of...
The Old Farmer’s Almanac revisited.
What Dave Barry always calls “an alert reader” stopped me the other day in the PCDL and asked if I wasn’t going to write ...
Welcome to 2016 — Need a Calendar??
Well, here we go again. ”Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme.” As you, no doubt recognized, the above aphorism attributed to Jean-Baptist Alphonse Karr,...
